Chapter 98: Fencing Tournament I
A month passed since Luke obtained the memory extraction technique. During this time, he dedicated all his efforts to learning the technique. He continued training his other auras but focused mainly on this damn technique.
He managed to read the entire five-hundred-page book. This, with his photographic memory, wasn't a great achievement. The good thing is that he already understood 50% of the book. In a month, that's good progress. He achieved this percentage thanks to Edgar, who even though he didn't have a blue aura, nor a student with this ability, was an excellent teacher and knew about various topics.
To fulfill his part of the deal, he helped Veronica train in martial arts. About three to four days a week. The Umbrio princess had a lot of hidden ferocity for close combat. She already knew martial arts but had never put it into practice because she didn't like fighting that way.
With her green aura, she managed to improve her physical abilities at an incredible rate, and in a month, Luke already felt like the distance between the two was shrinking. Veronica was getting closer and closer to Luke's base strength.
This progress was insane. He had trained with weights and resistance for months. He gained defined muscles and a great amount of strength in all the time he trained. However, in just a month, Veronica with her green aura had already closed considerable distances.
If she kept up at this pace, in two months she would match him in strength, endurance, and speed. Then, she would surpass him.
Luke understood this. His base physique was better than that of a normie, but Veronica was also an outcast. On top of that, she had her green aura, which allowed her to physically enhance all her biological functions (that is, strength, speed, endurance, etc.) to levels higher than average outcasts.
Edgar had told him that there were psychics with green aura capable of facing a werewolf in close combat and coming out victorious. This was due to what had been previously mentioned and their superhuman regeneration ability. They could heal themselves while fighting and even renew their endurance.
Because of all this, Luke didn't feel discouraged. It was stupid to try to compete against a psychic with a green aura using only his base outcast physique. However, if he added his telekinetic abilities into the equation, things would change drastically.
His blows imbued with telekinetic waves in his arms or legs could be stronger than those of psychics with a green aura. The same went for his speed if he used telekinetic waves to dodge attacks. If he added his observation haki, he would surpass them even more. He defeated Nick, his green aura companion, without much difficulty, only using his yellow aura.
On another note, the serial killer from Jericho appeared again. This time, killing a middle-aged woman who was returning from work on a nearly deserted route at night.
Like in the previous two murders, the woman was found with a part of her body mutilated. Her left arm.
As for Jonah, everyone assumed he was killed since he never appeared again. Only, his body has yet to be found.
Luke and Wednesday haven't left Nevermore again in search of more clues about the prophecy. Luke could tell that Wednesday wanted to go out and investigate, and at any moment, she might run away if she didn't manage to get a day off.
Days off are difficult rewards to obtain, as teachers don't give them all the time. During exams or special tests, you might be given a day off as a reward, but it's not the norm.
On the other hand, if you want to leave Nevermore to visit Jericho, you must give a valid reason. You can't leave just because you feel like it. Nevermore is a boarding school.
Luke preferred for things to stay slow. It wasn't in his interest to go investigate with Wednesday since, before that, he needed to master the memory extraction technique.
He realized that Wednesday could solve the mystery at any moment. The other day, when they heard about the third murder, Wednesday told him she suspected the person collecting the mutilated body parts was doing it for some kind of ritual. Most likely a resurrection ritual.
Who would be revived? Easy. Joseph Crackstone. In the drawing Rowan had gotten, you could see a pilgrim facing the two of them, and no ordinary pilgrim could stand against them. Only Crackstone, a normie who gained superhuman powers thanks to demons.
What needed to be solved was, who was behind Crackstone's resurrection? That person is the one controlling Hyde and the one collecting body parts for the ritual. They are also the person who stole the original Book of Shadows from the Pilgrim World.
Additionally, according to Rowan, she would be responsible for Nevermore's destruction. Why? She doesn't want to revive Crackstone, doesn't even know how, and wouldn't do it if she knew.
In any case, in the drawing, she was facing Crackstone, and rather than being Nevermore's destroyer, she would be its protector. That puzzled her, so she had to get to the bottom of this mystery.
Today, the entire tenth-grade class that Luke belonged to had an important fencing lesson. They would have practice duels as close to real combat as possible.
This was what Wednesday had been waiting for. A tournament like the one they had months ago in their exclusive psychic class. It's possible that the teacher would reward the winner. One of those rewards could be a day off, exactly what she needed.
'The biggest problem is him,' thought Wednesday, looking at Luke, who was already dressed in his fencing suit like everyone else. The only different suit was Wednesday's, which was black instead of white.
'He has his usual lazy expression... My fencing skills are superior, so I should be fine as long as he doesn't use his telekinesis or mental powers,' Wednesday thought.
"Nervous?" Luke asked, noticing Wednesday's gaze on him. He had already gotten used to Wednesday's blank stare.
Since they returned from Pilgrim World, their relationship has improved. Now, they spent much more time together and talked, whether about murders and catastrophic prophecies or different types of literature.
The conversations generally had a lot of sarcasm, sharp comments, and no filter, from both of them.
"I've never felt nervous," Wednesday replied. It wasn't arrogance, she was just stating the truth.
"Are you an android? How do I configure you to smile more often?" Luke asked with a mocking smile while pretending to search for some kind of button or something on Wednesday.
"Starting your stupid jokes this early?" Wednesday said, unfazed by Luke's comments. She had gotten used to them, and, incredibly, little by little, his remarks stopped irritating her. If anyone else had annoyed her this much, she would have cut their tongue out long ago.
"Sorry, sorry," Luke said with a slight smile, taking a step back as a precaution.
"Besides, why would you want me to smile more often?" Wednesday asked, raising an eyebrow. She was curious as to why Luke wanted to see her smile.
'Because you're cute when you smile,' Luke thought, but he didn't say that. It would be way too embarrassing and totally out of character for his relationship with Wednesday. Plus, he knew the girl wouldn't even blink at that compliment.
"I've only seen you smile twice. The first time was when you told me that normie would die, and the second was when we watched The Evil Dead," Luke said, moving closer to Wednesday and speaking in a low tone.
Luke had managed to watch a movie with Wednesday. The event was so natural that he hadn't realized what a difficult achievement that was. He got Wednesday to go to his dorm to watch a movie.
They watched the film with Xavier and Ajax, so nothing happened, and even if the two hadn't been there, nothing would have happened. Luke and Wednesday debated about gory horror movies and couldn't conclude, so they had to rewatch the movies to come to a new one.
"So?" Wednesday asked.
"You only smile at creepy things. Imagine if you had to smile every time you heard my comments. That would be fun," Luke said.
"That would be torture. Another thing we have in common," Wednesday commented, the last sentence in a low tone, referring to torture.
"Silence, class!" Professor Vlad said, stepping forward and quieting the murmurs of all the students.
"Today will be a single-elimination tournament. I've already set up the matchups. They were chosen at random. Let's get started quickly, as there are many matches to go through," Professor Vlad said.
At the beginning, three matches were played simultaneously since these were the early rounds. There were many more students, not just psychics. There were werewolves, sirens, vampires, etc.
Luke faced an unfamiliar boy and managed to beat him. His training hadn't been in vain, and his fencing technique had improved greatly. He didn't use his haki yet, as it was the only technique he could use without anyone realizing he was using his psychic powers.
Wednesday also won her first match without difficulty. Xavier, Ajax, Enid, Yoko, Divina, Bianca, and Kent also made it through the first round.
Luke's fellow psychic classmates also passed the first round. The only one who lost was Eugene, who received several mocking comments from some werewolf students.
"Werewolves mocking someone for beating a psychic, pathetic," Wednesday said loudly enough for them to hear.
She considered it pathetic because psychics weren't allowed to use their powers in these matches. That was a huge disadvantage against a werewolf, who had a superior physical condition compared to others. Not only physical but also in reflexes. Even without transforming, their condition was superior in these situations, and she found it unfair.
The werewolves turned their heads and glared at her with furious faces, but when they saw Luke standing next to her with his arms crossed, watching them, they quickly backed off.
The werewolves weren't afraid of Wednesday. Although she was odd, and her always blank expression could be unsettling, they didn't know about her strength, so they didn't fear her. However, they had seen Luke beat a senior werewolf student to exhaustion and kill a werewolf in the Poe Cup, though they hadn't witnessed the latter firsthand.
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